


Trust and Care

by FaithlessBex



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb's trust issues, Campaign 2 (Critical Role), Gen, barely but there, minor episode 11 spoilers, you can care and not trust at the same time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-07 01:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14070327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithlessBex/pseuds/FaithlessBex
Summary: Caleb doesn't trust Nott, but he cares for her.





	Trust and Care

Caleb isn’t stupid. He’s lived through too much to be naïve enough to assume there isn’t something that Nott wants from him. It’s why he doesn’t trust her – not completely. Still, whatever it is she wants means she’s invested in keeping him alive and that’s enough at first. The early days were easy, easier to run schemes and get by when there were two of them as opposed to just him. He wasn’t supposed to start caring. Caring is where things got blurred and _complicated_.

By the time they group up with their resident lunatics, he can forget most days that he and Nott are in a state of mutual manipulation and investment. He’s happy to use the rest of the Nein to pull attention away from him, but the sight of Nott in danger has somehow become something he can’t stand and he knows the same is true from her end. They are no longer just means to an end to each other and he’s not entirely certain what he’s supposed to do with that.

When she scampers back into their room, obviously agitated and upset, he doesn’t push. That’s not who he is. If she wanted to say, she would.

“Do you trust Fjord or Molly?” And there’s one unspoken question answered, whether or not his friend knows. It’s an easy thing to answer because as he told Fjord the night before, he doesn’t trust any of them. Not Fjord, Molly, Jester, Beau, Yasha. Not Nott.

“No.”

“Good. Me neither.”

He finishes his Alarm spell – set to only let himself and Nott out and in without alert – and silently tries to decipher her tone as he cracks open the book Jester had spent fifteen gold on when he’d decided it not worth the money. Fjord had been higher than all but Nott and Jester on his ‘potential trust’ list, but he would have to reevaluate.

Mollymauk, of course, couldn’t actually go lower on his list.

Nott would tell him in time what happened, he supposed. Or she would not. That was still to be seen.

**Author's Note:**

> I 100% believe that Caleb and Nott care for each other even while benefiting personally from their companionship in ways they don't plan on saying.


End file.
